Saturday’s event featured many of the less strenuous attractions popular among children such as face-painting.

The attractions offering visitors a brush with the past or a close encounter with nature, however, proved to be a bigger hit with kids and adults, organizers said.

“It’s been a record turnout. We’ve never had so many people turn out before,” said the Nature Center’s Superintendent Russ Kimura.

“We did some things differently this year,” he said, pointing to a expanded browsing area created around the center that moved parking further out.

“I talked to my vendors, my volunteers, my park staff and everybody is having a great time.”

One of the stars of Saturday’s open house was Wheely — a majestic Harris’s hawk with her grappling hook talons capable of exerting 70 pounds of pressure.

The hawk’s handler, Rick Brammer, held out his gloved hand to show a bloody exposed part of unprotected arm as proof of the bird’s prowess.

As a small crowd gathered around him, Brammer told the story of how Wheely came to call the Placerita Canyon Nature Center home.

“We found Wheely inside the wheel well of a UPS truck,” he said, hence Wheely’s name.

Center Animal Keeper David Stives “reached into the wheel well and all her tail feathers came off,” he said. That was 15 years ago.

An estimated 15,000 people on average visit the park every month, according to Kimura.

The park has seven different trails covering 12 miles of natural terrain. Its main trail, the Canyon Trail, connecting the Nature Center to eastern most part of the park, was recently updated to accommodate mountain bikers.